Find out the uncomfortable truths about how organizations really work, what's wrong with the way we design and manage businesses, what makes managers tick... and how we can make things work better.

f-LAWS (or flaws) are truths about organizations that we might wish to deny or ignore - simple and more reliable guides to managers' everyday behaviour than the complex truths proposed by scientists, economists, sociologists, politicians and philosophers.

Management f-Laws: the common sins of management

Equipping law-enforcement services with Tasers is likely to reduce the number of bullets officers fire from their handguns and therefore the number of serious injuries and deaths. At the same time, it may lead police to inflict an unwarranted amount of pain on individuals who commit only minor crimes.

The broader questions regarding the social effects of stun guns are, however, beyond the scope of this discussion. The two articles that follow investigate the physiological effects of electric shock. The first is by Mark W. Kroll, an electrical engineer who has helped invent numerous electrical medical devices and who sits on the board of Taser International. The second is by Patrick Tchou, a cardiac electrophysiologist at the Cleveland Clinic, who has tested Tasers experimentally on pigs.

IEEE Spectrum: How a Taser Works

A follow-up on the theme of educational niches.

John Seely Brown, a computing pioneer who focuses on learning, the social role of information, and innovation, argues that in the Internet age, tinkering is back, and that's good for education.

Read the introductory text. (Original is here, behind a paywall.)

Tinkering 2.0

There’s a lot of speculation at any given time about what the future of the web is. I don’t know what it is, but I think I know what it’s not. Facebook.

So what’s the next wave?

Why Facebook is not the future of the web

Keynote Address, Day 1 Network Complexity and Robustness -- John Doyle, California Institute of Technology
Neurons, Networks, and Noise: An Introduction -- Nancy Kopell, Boston University
Mixing Patterns and Community Structure in Networks -- Mark Newman, University of Michigan and Santa Fe Institute
Dynamic Networks -- Embedded Networked Sensing (Redux?) -- Deborah Estrin, University of California at Los Angeles
Dynamic Network Analysis in Counterterrorism Research -- Kathleen Carley, Carnegie Mellon University
Data and Measurement -- Current Developments in a Cortically Controlled Brain-Machine Interface -- Nicho Hatsopoulos, University of Chicago
Some Implications of Path-Based Sampling on the Internet -- Eric D. Kolaczyk, Boston University
Network Data and Models -- Martina Morris, University of Washington
The State of the Art in Social Network Analysis -- Stephen P. Borgatti, Boston College
Keynote Address, Day 2 -- Variability, Homeostasis per Contents and Compensation in Rhythmic Motor Networks -- Eve Marder, Brandeis University
Dynamics and Resilience of Blood Flow in Cortical Microvessels -- David Kleinfeld, University of California at San Diego
Robustness and Fragility -- Jean M. Carlson, University of California at Santa Barbara
Stability and Degeneracy of Network Models -- Mark S. Handcock, University of Washington
Visualization and Scalability -- Characterizing Brain Networks with Granger Causality -- Mingzhou Ding, University of Florida
Visualization and Variation: Tracking Complex Networks Across Time and Space -- Jon Kleinberg, Cornell University
Dependency Networks for Relational Data -- David Jensen, University of Massachusetts

Proceedings of a Workshop on Statistics on Networks

Speaking of mediocre violinists ...

Compared to a virtuoso, its rendition was a trifle stilted and, well, robotic. But Toyota's new robot plays a pretty solid "Pomp and Circumstance" on the violin.

The five-foot-tall all-white robot, shown Thursday, used its mechanical fingers to press the strings correctly and bowed with its other arm, coordinating the movements well.

Toyota Calls Robotics a Key Business

In December 2006, the National Academy of Sciences sponsored a colloquium (featured as part of the Arthur M. Sackler Colloquia series) on "Adaptation and Complex Design" to synthesize recent empirical findings and conceptual approaches towards understanding the evolutionary origins and maintenance of complex adaptations. Darwin's elucidation of natural selection as a creative natural force was a monumental achievement in the history of science, but a century and a half later some religious believers still contend that biotic complexity registers conscious supernatural design. In this book, modern scientific perspectives are presented on the evolutionary origin and maintenance of complex phenotypes including various behaviors, anatomies, and physiologies. After an introduction by the editors and an opening historical and conceptual essay by Francisco Ayala, this book includes 14 papers presented by distinguished evolutionists at the colloquium. The papers are organized into sections covering epistemological approaches to the study of biocomplexity, a hierarchy of topics on biological complexity ranging from ontogeny to symbiosis, and case studies explaining how complex phenotypes are being dissected in terms of genetics and development.

In the Light of Evolution: Volume 1. Adaptation and Complex Design

Informed that in one 24-hour period his Internet-savvy supporters had raised more than $4 million for his campaign — and in so doing had greatly raised the profile of his candidacy in the news media’s eyes — Ron Paul said, “It’s kind of sad, but the money is what has given us credibility, not the authenticity of the ideas.”

And by authenticity, he means his own.

Money for Something

Oops.

Few people noticed, but China got smaller the other day. According to new estimates, the colossal Chinese economy that has been making marketers salivate and giving others an inferiority complex may be roughly 40 percent smaller than previously thought: worth $6 trillion rather than $10 trillion.

It turns out that things in China are more expensive than we thought. It’s as though we discovered that the real price of the noodles in Beijing was 50 yuan, yielding a P.P.P. of 12.5 yuan to the dollar rather than 10. That means the Chinese are relatively poorer and China’s economy is smaller than everybody thought.

This is not a mere technicality.

China Shrinks

You wouldn't know it from the front pages, but there is major fighting going on in Afghanistan right now.

The Afghan forces were said to be proving their mettle in the latest combat. “These guys have no hesitation in killing the Taliban,” said Lieutenant-Colonel Simon Downey, commanding officer of the 2nd Battalion, Yorkshire Regiment, which is “mentoring” the Afghan troops.

The arrangement was not without frustrations. The Afghans were supposedly fighting under their own command. Yet they could barely function without Nato’s protection and Nato had to cajole them to move forward.

Another complication was the use of cannabis by Afghan soldiers. “Hashish is part of our culture,” said an Afghan officer. “It is just like whisky and wine for you.”

While you are checking out Drinking Across America: A Look at the 25 Best Microbreweries in the Country, remember:

Researchers caution, however, that if we humans are congenitally inclined to drink, we are designed to do so only in moderation. We are not, in other words, Syrian hamsters.

From NYT:

“We will carry out a hit-and-run war,” he said. “Losing Musa Qala doesn’t mean that we will stop fighting.”

Terror on road to Taliban stronghold